A form system, jForms, is available in Jelix, but we will see it in a next chapter.

For the moment, we're going to see how to deal with forms in a "traditionnal" way. We will to create a form in order to record some new news.


===== The template and the urls =====

Initially, we will make the template, very simplified, that we store in the newsform file : 

<code xml>
<h1>Creation of a news</h1>

<form action="{formurl 'news~default:createsave'}" method="POST">
{formurlparam 'news~default:createsave'}
<table>
<tr>
    <th><label for="subject">Subject</label></th>
    <td><input type="text" id="subject" name="subject" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <th><label for="text">Text</label></th>
    <td><textarea id="text" name="text"></textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <th><label for="date">Date</label> (AAAA-MM-JJ)</th>
    <td><input type="text" id="date" name="date" /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><input type="submit" value="Save"/>
<a href="{jurl 'news~default:index'}">Cancel</a></p>
</form>
</code>

Very classical, put aside the template tags {formurl}, {formurlparam} and {jurl}. 

In Jelix, you will avoid putting urls directly in the templates or the actions, for ease of maintenance and evolution reasons. The URL system of Jelix enables you to centralize all the urls in the jelix config or a urls.xml file (all depends on the URL engine used). The jUrl object and the tag {jurl} enable you to obtain a URL by giving only the name of the action and eventually the parameters. 

We could have used the tag {jurl} also in <form> tag, but if the URL contains parameters (as is the case here with module and action), it is best to put them in hidden fields. However, if we changed the configuration on the mapping url, it is not forced there is always these parameters. Also being used in conjunction plugins {formurl} and {formurlparam} who will themselves decide what to put in the attribute "action", and what should be put in hidden fields.

Here then, we state that the form will be submitted to URL of the default:createsave action.

Note: by default, {jurl}, {formurl} and {formurlparam} correctly escapes the reserved characters in HTML/XML.



===== Displaying the form =====

We will create a first action : "createform" to display an empty form for a new news.

<code php>
    function createform(){
        $rep = $this->getResponse('html');
        $rep->title = 'New news';
        $rep->bodyTpl = 'newsform';
        return $rep;
    }
</code>

To reach this page, we will add a link in bottom in the template listenews.tpl

<code>
    <p><a href="{jurl 'news~default:createform'}">Add a news</a></p>
</code>

Here, one more time, we use the {jurl} tag.

===== Saving the data =====

As we stated in the form, we now have to create a "default:createsave" action to save the new data.

Initially, we retrieve a record, that is filled with the data sent by the form. The URL parameters ($_GET) or posted ($_POST), are accessible via the param() method of the controllers.

<code php>
        $news = jDao::createRecord('news~news');
        $news->sujet = $this->param('subject');
        $news->text = $this->param('text');
        $news->news_date = $this->param('date');
</code>

We then retrieve a DAO factory to save the record.

<code php>
        $dao = jDao::get('news~news');
        $dao->insert($news);
</code>

In the end, we will redirect to the list of news.
<code php>
        $rep = $this->getResponse('redirect');
        $rep->action = 'news~default:index';
        return $rep;
</code>

Which gives finally :

<code php>
    function createsave(){
        $news = jDao::createRecord('news~news');
        $news->subject = $this->param('subject');
        $news->text = $this->param('text');
        $news->news_date = $this->param('date');

        $dao = jDao::get('news~news');
        $dao->insert($news);

        $rep = $this->getResponse('redirect');
        $rep->action = 'news~default:index';
        return $rep;
    }
</code>

You can now display the list of news one more time and reach the form.